Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Margaret now has an MoT. I picked her up today £215 lighter but I now have that all-important piece of paper. Just the tax disc and then I'm road legal with this car. The quality of the welding is good. The sill has had an invisible repair done and once it has had the topcoat it will look like it was never welded. All in all I'm quite pleased.

Friday, November 20, 2009

This week on my week off from work I went down to deepest Berkshire in Blue. I'd recently fitted a new fuel filter and when I filled up before setting off I put some STP fuel treatment in the tank. The journey down went without a single hitch and when I filled up again at the Sainsbury's in Newbury I was pleased to find out that I'd averaged 40.9 mpg. I'm back and I clocked up a total of 600 trouble-free miles. I've got a couple of jobs to do on Blue. I need to top up the engine oil and sort out the windscreen washers.

Margaret is still not ready. Good thing I'm not in a rush.

I've managed to revive Brown. I put her in the garage before going away. I'll probably have to jump start the car so I reversed into the garage to make it possible.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

I've been having a few problems with Blue's fuel system so it is time I addressed these. Since I changed the fuel tank I've had problems when filling up. If I fill up too fast the petrol filler neck overflows. According to the Guru this is due to a blocked vent pipe. Also, Blue sometimes runs like a bag of spanners. I'm sure that this is due to rust & sediment in the fuel lines. When Margaret is on the road I'll be able to deal with these problems. The windscreen washer pump has packed up so I'll have to rob the one from Becky.

I'm going to do some prep work on Margaret before I take her in for the repairs & retest to make life a bit easier for the garage and (hopefully) to save myself a few quid.

Monday, November 09, 2009

...which wasn't much of a surprise. Fortunately it was only minor things. A brake pipe and a few small bits of welding so I'm going to bite the bullet and get the testing station to do it all so Margaret is booked on for next Monday (the 16th) for the repairs and retest which is convenient for me as I can't afford to tax the car until my next payday in December.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Margaret has been booked in for the MoT for Friday so I was in the garage sorting out the last few jobs. First up was to finish welding the sill. I got it done and primed as you can see below. The nearside front suspension turret had another coat of the primer.

The nearside wiper spindle had another small piece of steel wedged in to stop the wobbling and after moving the car out of the garage I tested the wipers (it was raining) and it seems to be fine. The nearside windscreen washer jet was blocked so I cleared it out and the windscreen washers now work perfectly. After I'd finished I washed the car so it is now ready to be tested on the big day.